Sunday, June 01, 2014

Fighting Academic Boycotts of Israel


Elder of Ziyon reports on the good news that a referendum by the University of Sussex Students Union to boycott Israeli academic and cultural institutions has been defeated.

But, as he points out, the anti-boycott case made by the Jewish Students is itself an anti-Israel statement that essentially says that a boycott would be unfair to the many left-wing Israeli academics who support the Palestinian cause. The case includes this statement at the end
Instead, we should be encouraging co-operation with critical and progressive elements within Israeli academia. 
which confirms the overall message  that only left-wing Israeli academics who oppose their government should be heard. So the anti-boycott campaigners appear to be quite selective and are not averse to boycotting Israelis who do not agree with their left-wing views.

In the comments section of Elder's article someone called Gabriel (who seems to have been involved in the anti-boycott motion) claims that this approach was the only way to 'win people over'. But, as one commenter says in response:
it's very sad that in order to "persuade the electorate" they have to pander to the lies and distortions of the haters.
Personally I would have recommended the satirical approach (here and here) to highlight the hypocrisy and anti-semitism of the boycott Israel movement.

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